Coming off a literary high - please help

[CoteDAzur]

I just read Cloud Atlas and This Thing Of Darkness in quick succession, both epic, fantastic books of great scope and vision.

Now I don't now what to do with myself. Read another book, but what? What can I read now that won't be a huge disappointment after these two wonderful books that I have just finished?

Just read 'The Anniversary Man'. Bit dark but absolutely gripping and very well written. Can't read another of his straight off though. Need something a little lighter first!

Should I read the His Dark Materials trilogy? I thought they were children's books.

Yes you must, must read His Dark Materials. It's wonderful. In fact, I'm jealous of you getting to read them for the first time, they are that brilliant.

HDM are definitely for adults too. They are wonderful books, would be life-changing if you were a bookish 13 year old girl but adults can get just as much from them. I read them again every couple of years.

Earthymama - Sherri Tepper's dystopian fantasy books? I had never heard of her, but just looked up her books on Amazon and am a bit puzzled - Hero sets off to find his princess? Enchanted village? Dragons and ogres?

It sounds like your garden variety teenage fantasy. What is special about it? (I'm curious)

Apologies in advance for how long this is going to be! I?m typing into Word and will copy and paste ? so I can see all the thread as I write!
I find Lovecraft quite mixed ? some of them are too way out for me, I must admit.

God ? don?t read ?Heart Of Darkness.? Conrad is sooooooooo tedious. I loathed, ?Never Let Me Go? too. I was also not at all impressed by, ?A Fine Balance? which I read because lots of people on here had told me to ? a tedious catalogue of misery. Sorry, Jajas but I hated it. ?The Grapes Of Wrath? is a similar catalogue of misery but at least it?s more believable.

I hated ?The Poisonwood Bible? too.

I take it you?ve read, ?Lord Of The Flies?? Can?t think why it?s taken me so long to remember that. I love it.

Yes to Pullman (but you will, I am sure, hate the bloody wheeled horse thingies, as I do).

I can?t believe I?m the only person who loved (LOVED) ?The Virgin Suicides.? I just loved the way that all the boys watched the tragic events unfold like a sort of freakshow ? imagine what it would be like now, with Facebook etc!

Song Of Ice And Fire ? you would HATE it Cote. It is v v badly written and it?s all that fantasy stuff you dislike. I?ve read the first two but won?t read any more ? only toiled through those two because a friend had lent them to me, having loved them.

Pat Barker?s Regeneration trilogy ? the first is stunning, the second is ridiculous, the third is okay. Tbh I?d just read the first and have done.

Room - I think you'd think it's trite. I liked the first half but thought the second half was crap.

I was a bookish 13 year old but His Dark Materials wasn't around then. Changing my life was left to 1984 and Brave New World

I like "way out". Must look into Lovecraft!

My life was changed by Jane Austen - but I suspect that Cote would hate her!

Yes, yes to '1984' and 'Brave New World.'

Nobody has mentioned Poe yet - I take it you've read him?

I read & loved Lord of the Flies at school as a teenager. I spent a half day at the library (no internet back then) and found out, among other stuff, that the title meant "Beelzebub" = the devil. Great book.

Didn't think Room matched all the hype. Perfectly readable, but nothing to write home about.

Another good read is The Fifth Child by Doris Lessing. It's easily readable in one sitting and does make for uncomfortable reading, but for some reason I couldn't put it down.

No. All I read by Poe was a love poem.

Cote no I was 13 way before P Pullman too, what I meant was I can imagine it being life-changing for someone at that age, but I still got a lot from it at 25! (and since then)

OK, you convinced me [overflowing Kindle emoticon]

No Kindle edition for His Dark Materials on Amazon.fr - why?

I read His Dark Materials after a (different) author recommended them to be at a meet the author thing when I was a teenager and I loved them.

I think they are amazing books, I probably get more out of them as an adult - they are much more literary than you'd imagine. The first book is 'Northern Lights', the author is Philip Pullman. It's difficult to describe what they are about without giving away the story, but they are certainly not just for children.

Its kind of about the difference between being a child and being an adult. But it explores this subject in a much more sophisticated way than the average coming of age story.

Is it possible that the books are available seperately on the Kindle. The books are:

Northern Lights
The Subtle Knife
The Amber Spyglass

They have sometimes been packaged together under the series name of 'His Dark Materials' but maybe Kindle has them seperately?

Mind and tell us what you think of them!

Jamrach's Menagerie by Carol Birch is fascinating and brilliantly written. it was shortlisted for the Booker and should have won!

OK, got the whole trilogy from Amazon.com (worked my magic portal between country stores).

So now my Kindle is happily purring with unread copies of:

• A Clockwork Orange
• Slaughterhouse Five
• The Drawing Of The Three (Dark Tower #2)
• The Dervish House
• His Dark Materials (all three books)

So happy

Spirited - No, the books' Kindle editions are not present in Amazon.fr at all, under any name. Very strange. It must be some sort of copyright problem.

Remus - You are right, I don't ever want to read Jane Austen